How To Make Money with Digital Products

As I sit here and type, it’s December - a time when lots of people are seriously spending. Shopping, eating, drinking. Shopping again. Out it goes!

So I want to talk about money open and honestly. What can you earn with digital products, as a creative services freelancer?

But before we can dig into it, we need to first of all just check in with our mindset on the topic. What I see a lot in my students and clients, is this thing that you’re ‘mission driven’ - therefore money’s not important.

How to approach making money online as a mission driven brand

Speaking as a woman who took a big hit to my own income after having children and leaving corporate life, I KNOW money’s not everything.

But this is about having the freedom to live a lifestyle that suits you and your family. In fact, this whole post is really about freedom, because for me, creating digital products is a way of gaining more time-freedom and firmer boundaries AS WELL as adding a layer of income.

You can have strong values, you can be mission driven, you can be kind, inclusive and care about the environment too.

AND you can want (and need) to earn an income for yourself. Just because some businesses out there are ‘profit first’, doesn’t mean it’s an either/or scenario. In my opinion, you can have a mission at your heart driving you forwards, and navigate profitably as you go.

So how can you make money with digital products or online courses and programmes?

Here are the main approaches:

Create a group offering that’s similar to your 1:1 services
Create a digital product that doesn’t need you
Create a masterclass or workshop
Create a Membership

Let’s explore each of these.

Group programme (aka one-to-many instead of one-to-one)

Let’s say you already provide 1:1 services, for example, you’re a graphic designer. To earn more, you have to take on more clients or you have to charge more.

So 2 hours of your time with a client is worth a set amount. For example, let’s say you bill at £40 per hour. Well, what if instead of only helping one client at a time, you could help five. Or ten. Or twenty. Or hundreds?

This is one of the best models to use if you love giving a personal service, to help you transition into a one-to-many offering.

Here, you’d charge an amount per person and could offer instalments too. Typically, this sort of programme runs for a fixed period of time and you would unpack your knowledge into a specific set of steps over that time period.

For example, you could take a popular element of your design work, such as logo design, and help people with creating their own. You would teach them your approach to those things as video lessons AND be there to coach them personally as well.

So what does this do to your income?

You have to consider the time it takes you to create the teaching content and the ‘live’ coaching time you give to your group.

Here’s a simplified example

Let’s say you make 5 videos and this takes you 10 hours. So in old money that would be:

10 x £40 = £400

Then you provide 5 x 1 hour coaching sessions. So that’s

5 x £40 = £200

So your total equivalent income needs to beat £600 to break even versus 1:1 time.

Now, the first time you sell your programme, you may do it to a small number of people. Let’s say five people. You could charge £150 as it’s new and you’re learning

So 5 x £150 = £750

Already, you’ve recouped your time costs (£600) with an extra £150 to boot.

The next time you sell, you already have the videos, so all we’re looking at is the coaching time. You may also charge more...but keep the coaching hours the same.

You might sell 8 spaces at £200 and make £1600.

With the same 5 hours of coaching time, which in old money would have only made you £200….so you’re £1400 better off.

Can you see the potential?

This means you could:

A/ Earn more for the same amount of coaching, consulting or ‘doing’

B/ Set clear boundaries on your time with less ‘scope creep’

C/ Earn a large cash injection when you launch your programme

HOWEVER, you would most likely have more costs and time demands than I’ve shown here (and in the following examples to). Things like:

Advertising
Marketing and enrolment emails
Free webinars or other freebies
Feedback and comments into your community
Workbooks, presentations and other content
Platforms and tech
Plus the videos would probably likely take longer if you are editing them

But the principle here is - the more you do it, the more you make, because you reuse the same content and set up automated emails too.

Plus, group programmes should carry a premium - they are really popular because they have a start and end (so won’t be another course that never gets finished) and have the valuable asset of YOU involved. So really you need be charging £300+ once you’ve tested your ideas.

2. A digital product that doesn’t need you

This could be a self-paced online course, an audio download, an e-book, planner, printable or guide. Basically something that can be bought from your online shop without any involvement from you.

In this scenario, as with the above example, you still have an initial time injection that your first few sales need to recoup.

Digital product example

1 day to make your product. - that’s 7 hours x £40 = £280

Then typically, these sorts of products have a lower value (although not always, some high end brands sell e-books £££!). But let’s say you charge £27, which is a classic price point at the moment.

You’d need to sell 11 to break even.

And once you’ve done that, the rest of what you sell is profit, with no ‘live’ or coaching time to take into account.

The main thing to consider is the marketing. What works really well is if you have some really strong ‘evergreen’ marketing systems set up to drive a flow of people to your product and you sell a steady flow month to month. This could be something like a Pinterest strategy into a free download, then a series of emails to convert those people to your paid-for product

3. A masterclass or workshop

This one is delivered live - so you’ll need to cover that amount of time.

Masterclass example

Let’s say it’s 90 minutes, which gives you time for introductions, a full hour’s class, then some Q&A’s.

90 minutes at your 1:1 rate is £60.

The amazing thing about masterclasses, is you could go to a much higher volume of people - even with Q&A’s, this can be a large volume versus group coaching. Let’s say your first masterclass is to 15 people. And you charge a low introductory rate of £49.

15 x £49 = £735

Then you need to spend time writing your class and putting the presentation together - you’ll probably need a day, so that’s your £280 again. But you can keep using it once it’s done.

Masterclasses are a fantastic way to layer in a new income strand to your 1:1 services. They don’t need much preparation and most likely you’ll already have a pool of people who want a more accessible way to work with you.

As will all of these ideas, you’ll have to do your marketing well! Just like a group programme, this can give you a great cash injection when you launch.

4. A Membership or subscription model

This is a way to earn a regular income - whether monthly, quarterly or annually.

You’re not going to get that cash injection you’ll get with a group programme or masterclass, but instead you’ll get more certainty and consistency with every new sale.

Membership example

In our graphic designer example, you might create a membership for something that people have a continuous need for - such as social media graphics. You could provide one class and template a month, with one coaching call and a support community.

This might take you in total 1 day a month at £280.

This is a fairly basic Membership model, so you’d probably charge around £30-£40.

Let’s say £30, you know you need 10 Membership payments a month to break even. Your time here always needs to be provided, so that cost doesn’t go away.

But you can seriously scale. Let’s say you had 100 Members at £35 a month, that’s £3,500 every single month for a day’s work.

You just have to factor in people leaving (your attrition rate), how to keep people there (retention) and how to get new people in,.

In summary

As with all of these options, there’s time that goes into creating and maintaining the programmes as well as marketing.

But the benefits of diversifying your income so you don’t rely solely on 1:1 clients are enormous. Just looking at the pandemic is reason enough to give yourself an online one-to-many option.

Personally what I love is that you can turn them on or off (except Memberships which are ongoing). So if I want to I could have a whole month or season packed with masterclasses and programmes, I could launch a download or a Membership. But if I’m busy with clients I can keep it low key. It’s great to have that choice and works so well as an additional income strand to your 1:1 services.

Want step-by-step personalised support to launch your first programme?

Take a look at Expand Your Brand, my signature group programme to take you from your course, class or programme ideas all the way through to making it happen and banking your first payment.

Not sure what to create?

Take the quiz to find out what kind of digital product or course would most suit you. No need for an email address unless you want to (which of course I would love but I don’t force the point!)

Did you find this blog post helpful? Do share and pin away. There are some images below you can feel free to use. Tag me @thebrandologist.co on Instagram.

take the quiz

Wondering whether to create a course, a Membership, workshop or group programme? Wonder no more!

take the quiz now

Did you like this blog?

Here are some images you can save to Pinterest to share it.

Creating ProcessCat UnderwoodDecember 7, 2021courses, start ups, digital products, Change, creative business, make money online